NBA Tips Off with Eight Games on TV in Four Days
Kevin Garnett by Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images
The 2007 NBA season opens this week with a quadruple-double: four straight nights of doubleheaders on TNT (Oct. 30 and Nov. 1) and ESPN (Oct. 31 and Nov. 2).
Tomorrow night's opening game sees the Portland Trailblazers face off against the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs (Oct. 30, 8 pm/ET). After that, the Houston Rockets will take on the Los Angeles Lakers at 10:30 pm/ET. ESPN's coverage on Halloween includes the Dallas Mavericks at the Cleveland Cavaliers (8 pm/ET) and the Seattle SuperSonics at the Denver Nuggets (10:30 pm/ET).
On Thursday TNT has the Detroit Pistons at the Miami Heat, plus the Phoenix Suns taking on the Sonics. Friday's ESPN games are the Washington Wizards at the Boston Celtics, followed by the Suns hosting the Lakers.
Changes at the broadcast table include ex-Indiana Pacer
Reggie Miller assuming a full-time game-analyst role for TNT, and ESPN's hiring of former Knicks/Rockets coach
Jeff Van Gundy as an analyst.
"I was beginning to think that we had pushed Reggie back into the possibility of playing," says
Marv Albert, who will handle play-by-play duties alongside Miller and
Mike Fratello for the Blazers/Spurs game. "I feel very fortunate to be working with this combination for me, it's the best of both worlds."
On court, there could be some surprises this year. "It's good to have the Boston Celtics relevant again," TNT analyst
Doug Collins says of a team that went 24-58 last season. Ten-time All-Star "
Kevin Garnett [acquired from the Timberwolves this summer] is in a good situationyou have two proven scorers in Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, so the chemistry will be there."
Miller believes the Spurs could have difficulty upholding their championship. "Houston is one of two or three teams that can beat San Antonio this year," he says. "They really shored up the power forward position by picking up [rookie Luis] Scola [a member of Argentina's 2004 Olympic-gold-medal-winning team] and the up-tempo, Rick Adelman style will really help
Tracy McGrady."
- Reporting by Rob Moynihan
For more with Reggie Miller, check out our interview in the features section.
